Wagner Group | Russia’s shadowy private soldiers 

The private security organisation that emerged in Ukraine in 2014 has grown into a military behemoth with presence across continents

In April 2012, Vladimir Putin, then Prime Minister of Russia, was asked in the State Duma about his views on using private paramilitary organisations to expand Russian influence abroad. “Are you ready to create a working group that would work on this issue?” Aleksey Mitrofanov, a deputy from the Just Russia party, asked Mr. Putin, immediately after he presented the Prime Minister’s report to Parliament. “I understand your question and I think that this is indeed a tool for realising national interests without the direct participation of the state. You are absolutely right,” Mr. Putin said in his reply. “I think yes, we can think about it, consider it.”

In less than two years, the Wagner Group emerged in Ukraine as the country’s east was falling into a civil war between government forces and Russia-backed rebels. The private soldiers were often referred to in the media as the “little green men”, after the military uniforms they wore. Russia had already annexed Crimea, without practically no fight. But in Donbas, the rebels rose against the Ukrainian forces. The Russian government maintained that it had not sent troops to Ukraine. But the “little green men” fought alongside the Ukrainian rebels, who captured parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Obalsts in the Donbas region, which President Putin recognised as independent republics before ordering the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

Ever since the 2014 Ukrainian conflict, the Wagner Group has expanded its operations to many parts of the world, from Africa to West Asia and Latin America. In most of the countries they were deployed, as Mr. Putin said in the Duma, Russia could expand its military footprint and associated political influence, without actually sending Russian armed forces. And now, when Russia’s Ukraine invasion is under way, there were many reports that Wagner contractors have been deployed alongside Russian soldiers in the battlefields.

Unlike in the United States, where dozens of private military corporations have been registered, establishing a private military company is illegal in Russia. The Russian Constitution specifically states that all matters of security and defence are a state monopoly. But there are loopholes in the legal system which private companies have used to set up security organisations. State-run enterprises are allowed to have private security units. Or private Russian-controlled military organisations registered abroad have been tolerated by the state authorities.

There are several Russian private paramilitary companies that are registered abroad. The Wagner Group, however, remains a shadowy organisation. Wagner is not a registered business in Russia — and where it has been registered, if at all, remains a mystery. It doesn’t have an official website (though there were mysterious websites that, as per a report on France 24, were used as recruiting platforms for Wagner). Nor does it have official social media handles.

But both the UN and Russian authorities have confirmed the existence and operations of Wagner. In 2018, President Putin termed it a military contractor but denied any links with the Russian state. He said that if the group wasn’t “violating Russian law, it has the right to work and promote its interests abroad,” according to a report in RT. A report by a UN panel of experts last year blamed “Russian instructors” in the Central African Republic for “indiscriminate killings, looting and enforced disappearances”. While the report did not name Wagner, the UN Working Group on mercenaries did. A report by the group dated March 24, 2021 stated that the Wagner Group “doesn’t seem to have a legal existence [in Russia] while operating in several countries across the globe”. In their recommendations, the Working Group has asked for “detailed information about ChVK Wagner (Wagner Group), its registration status in Russia and its relationship, if any, with the authorities of the Russian Federation’.

The U.S. government has claimed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with close ties to President Putin, was the key financier of Wagner. Mr. Prigozhin has also been accused of funding the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm that ran an online campaign against Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. Mr. Prigozhin has denied any links with Wagner and Russia’s Defence Ministry.